Fish lures having members extending forwardly from their head ends are disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,615,274 which issued Oct. 28, 1952 to P. F. Slough, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,541,718 which issued Nov. 24, 1970 to B. K. Norman. Indeed, the Slough lure is described (Column 2, lines 26-28) as " . . . having a tendency to jump out of the water . . . ". However, as compared to the present invention the forwardly extending members of these fish lures are not cantilevered forwardly and upwardly from the bottom portion or bottom edge of a blunt nosed body as provided by the present invention. While this distinction is considered material, it is not believed to be the only material distinction between these prior art lures and the lures described hereinafter which embody the present invention.
Other prior art patents include U.S. Pat. No. 2,563,282 which issued Aug. 7, 1951 to J. N. Schenck and which discloses a fish lure comprising a skeletal-type interior structure and a rotationally adjustable head piece; U.S. Pat. No. 3,497,987 which issued Mar. 3, 1970 to G. S. Perrin and which discloses a fish lure having a somewhat scorpion-tail-shape hook; U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,088 which issued Oct. 2, 1973 to B. L. Bainton and which discloses a lure having a fin 34 which is somewhat similarly shaped to the keel fin of one embodiment of the present invention which is described hereinafter, but which fins are oppositely disposed and are believed to have substantially different functions; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,109 which issued Apr. 1, 1975 to C. A. Peterson and which shows a "Tease Spoon" having a plurality of fish line attaching apertures 22, and an adjustably positionable weight 36. However, while the lures disclosed in the above referenced patents comprise some similarities to the buoyant, jumping fish lure embodiments of the present invention as described and shown herein, it is believed they fail both individually and collectively to teach, disclose, or suggest the present invention, or means for achieving the degree of dynamic performance of lures embodying the present invention.